Who is Mister Medvedev?

The nomination of First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev as the presidential candidate of four major Russian political parties has made headlines in Russia . Vladimir Putin announced his support of this candidacy. Analysts say the presidential hopeful has a high chance of winning, given the backing from the current head of state and the pro-Kremlin United Russia, which garnered more than 64% of the votes in the latest State Duma election on December 2.

Dmitry Medvedev owes his political career to Vladimir Putin. For most of their 17-year acquaintance, the President has been his boss, in St Petersburg town hall, the federal government and the Kremlin.

Just like Putin, Medvedev was born in Leningrad, now St. Petersburg (on September 14, 1965), and graduated from the law department of Leningrad State University. Their paths crossed in 1990, when they were both working for Leningrad Mayor Anatoly Sobchak.

Medvedev worked with Putin on Sobchak’s team until 1996, when the mayor lost the election to Vladimir Yakovlev. He served as a legal expert on the mayor’s committee for foreign relations, headed by Putin, and later became an adviser to Putin when he was appointed first deputy mayor.

From 1990 to 1999, Medvedev was also assistant professor of civil law at Leningrad State University and had a private practice.

He worked in business, in 1990 co-founding Uran, a small state-controlled company, and in 1994 established the Balfort civil law consultancy with his former school colleagues. In the autumn of 1999, Medvedev was appointed Deputy Chief of Staff of the federal government. Vladimir Putin was then Prime Minister. On December 31, 1999, Putin became acting President. The same day he appointed Medvedev deputy chief of the presidential executive office. In February and March 2000, Medvedev headed Putin’s election staff, helping him to win convincingly in the presidential election.

In June 2000, he was appointed first deputy chief of the presidential executive office and chairman of the board of directors of Gazprom, a significant post in Russia.

In October that year, Putin asked Medvedev to be chief of the presidential executive office. In November 2005, he was appointed First Deputy Prime Minwister, encouraging the belief that he would succeed Putin. However, First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov was also considered a potential successor. Some time before, Medvedev had been put in charge of priority national projects, which journalists and analysts saw as a grooming for the presidency. (National projects were considered a useful vehicle for promoting a positive public view of the authorities.)

In July 2006, Medvedev criticised Ivanov’s favourite term, “sovereign democracy”, in a magazine interview. Medvedev was regarded as a Kremlin liberal, while Ivanov was thought to represent the more hawkish law-enforcement and security faction. The people liked the national projects, and Medvedev’s rating soon soared ahead of Ivanov’s. In a Levada poll in January, 33 percent of respondents said they would vote for Medvedev in the first round and 54 percent in the second.

Many Russians thought that Putin was using the Medvedev-Ivanov debate to divert attention from another unknown candidate. But it became clear on December 10 that Medvedev had won the unofficial race for the nomination. Medvedev is married to Svetlana, whom he has known since school, and has a son, Ilya, born in 1996. His youthful hobbies were hard rock, photography, weightlifting and chess.

Ilya Azar / Gazeta.ru

Moscow

In the Candidate's Own Words

On politics

I still don’t like that term [sovereign democracy]. I still believe that any full-fledged democracy must be based on state sovereignty. But as a lawyer, I consider it excessive to over-emphasize one particular sign of full-fledged democracy: the supremacy of the authorities at home, and independence abroad [to Vedomosti newspaper, July 5, 2007].

On relations with the West

Russia is part of Europe and European civilization. This does not mean that we should forget about other partners; Russia must look in all the directions [from a speech at the 59th World Newspaper Congress, June 6, 2006]. I don’t think Russia should oppose America. This may seem obvious, but Russia’s role in the international community depends on its economic might and a healthy political system. If we ensure both elements, Russia will play an increasingly active role in the world [from a speech to the 59th World Newspaper Congress in Moscow, June 6, 2006].

On economic policy

I don’t think that state corporations are more efficient than private corporations. On the contrary, I hold the opposite point of view. But there are certain sectors of the economy where state-owned companies are essential, especially for Russia [to Vedomosti newspaper, July 5, 2007].